follow flights on the web

While I was on the flight yesterday, my brother sent me a link to an interesting website I’d forgotten about: FlightAware.

It allows you to track the progress of an individual airplane across the map (perfect if you need to pick someone up).

Or, you can simply follow all the traffic around a specific airport.

Here, for example, is the PORTLAND AIRPORT right now. The light blue planes represent flights that either took off from Portland or are scheduled to land here. The green flights have no connection to Portland’s airport but simply happen to be nearby.

Place the cursor over any plane to see information about its departure and arrival airports. (If you don’t know the meaning of the airport abbreviations, you can click on those as well.)